


Cohesion

by DownToTheSea



Category: Sanctuary (TV)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-05-13
Packaged: 2019-03-04 14:04:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13366263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DownToTheSea/pseuds/DownToTheSea
Summary: Helen and Nikola in the quieter times in between scientific discovery and saving the world.





	1. United

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to be a series of ficlets based off of the Nonsexual Acts of Intimacy meme on Tumblr. I'll get to the ones I was prompted first, but I loved all of them so much I wouldn't be surprised if I did some that I wasn't prompted, haha. Anyway, this is for "adjusting the other's tie/jewelry/etc." Enjoy!

“Helen, shall I hide an extra gun for you in my jacket?” Nikola called to Helen from the bathroom, where he stood in front of the mirror knotting his tie.

“Thank you, but no,” Helen answered, her voice rather muffled, before appearing in the doorway behind Nikola. “I shouldn’t need any extra tonight. Besides, I know how much you hate damaging the line of your suit.” Her tone was dry, but she sounded amused, and she further graced Nikola by turning around, lifting her hair up, and saying coolly, “If you would be so kind.”

“With pleasure, my dear.” Nikola dropped his tie half-done and turned to her with lightning speed. Of course he could zip up her dress with a tilt of his head and a thought, but there was no way he would ever pass up the opportunity to do it with his own hands, relishing the tantalizing brush of her bare skin against his fingers.

He dropped a kiss to her neck when he was done, tie forgotten as Helen leaned into him, turning her head to kiss his cheek. Nikola hummed contentedly, thinking that perhaps this night would turn out a lot more interesting than he’d been expecting, but Helen stepped away a little and turned in his arms.

“There’ll be time later, Nikola,” she reminded him, though in a slightly regretful way, Nikola noticed with smug satisfaction.

“Aww, Helen,” he said, holding out his hand to pull her earrings off the counter and twisting his fingers, levitating them into her ears. “Don’t tell me you’d rather spend the night buttering up a few Sanctuary council members than back here, just you, me, that bed…”

“Buttering up is hardly how I would describe it,” Helen said. “Sanctuary network business may seem boring to you, but with our Hollow Earth facilities expanding faster than planned, we desperately need to figure out how to accommodate our growth.”

“Oh, Helen, you know what that kind of badass Sanctuary leader talk does to me,” Nikola murmured.

“Well, if you like that, then you’ll  _ love  _ the meeting tonight,” she said dryly. “If you’re lucky, we’ll get into staff recruitment and funding.”

“Ooh, sexy.” Nikola grinned.

Helen chuckled, her gaze shifting down to his half-knotted tie. “I’m surprised at you, Nikola,” she said, nodding towards it. “Normally you’d rather be caught dead than mildly disheveled.”

“Unless you’re responsible for the disheveling,” Nikola said with a wink. “But I’ll fix it… Wouldn’t want to make a bad impression on your Sanctuary people.”

“I think my Sanctuary people are more concerned about your track record with world domination than your appearance, Nikola.”

“Yet here they are, letting me into their little circle.” Nikola turned to the mirror to fiddle with the knot. “Curiosity about the last of the vampires? I  _ am  _ pretty fascinating, after all.”

“Modesty becomes you so well.” Helen watched him with amusement, a touch of unconcealed fondness, and rather a lot of concealed fondness, but he caught something in her tone that made him turn around and take a closer look at her.

“Unless they didn’t want to let me in,” he guessed. “Helen, did you passionately fight for me while I wasn’t even around to swoon properly?”

“Nonsense,” she said, but didn’t quite catch his eyes. “You know more than anyone apart from myself about our technological capabilities, our power requirements, our…” She trailed off, glaring half-heartedly at Nikola.

“You can wipe that smug grin off your face. You’re part of the Sanctuary now. An important part,” she added, rather quietly. “It was foolish to exclude you, and I simply told them so.”

“God, I wish I would’ve been there,” Nikola said with relish. “Was Heinrich there? He might spill the details if I bribed him.”

“Only Will was present.” Helen’s tone was carefully neutral, but it didn’t take a genius of Nikola’s caliber to figure out whose side he had been on.

“Damn. Well, I guess I’ll just have to imagine it for myself,” he said.

“I can assure you it was nowhere near as dramatic as I can see you picturing,” Helen said. “The heads of house trust my judgement, for the most part. All I did was – give you a good reference.”

“Brilliant, wonderful, astounding vampire genius, fantastic hair, also great in bed?” Nikola said, still grinning.

She rolled her eyes.

“Adores the head of the Sanctuary network and would do anything for her?” he added in a softer tone,  and lifted up Helen’s hand to kiss it.

Helen raised an eyebrow, but then her expression softened. “I left that part out.” She reached up her free hand to touch his chest. “I told them I had faith in you. I always have, Nikola,” she said gently, before curling her fingers around his tie and tugging him closer until their lips met.

Nikola lost himself pleasantly in Helen for a few minutes, one arm wrapping around her. The other he would have employed in a similar fashion, but Helen had a very tight grip on his hand and Nikola preferred not to slip out of it, caressing her fingers as his lips caressed hers.

“I suppose you couldn’t postpone this council meeting?” Nikola asked hopefully when they separated so Helen could breathe.

“I’m afraid not,” she said, her lips twitching. “Stay there a moment, I’ve made your tie crooked.”

Smiling, Nikola waited while she straightened it then stepped back, though she maintained a hold on his hand.

“There,” she said. “Now we’re ready.”


	2. Tied Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the "back scratches" prompt. Set soon after Sleepers. (My apologies for the lateness in updating my Teslen fics recently! I was struggling to get anything written for a while, but then I fell deep into the trashcan for another show/ship and that really helped with my inspiration! So I'll be gradually trying to update my Teslen stuff as well <3)

“You know what would come in really handy right now?” Nikola’s tone was forlorn. “Claws. Really sharp claws. Or maybe super strength. Even better? Super strength  _ and  _ claws. Just saying.”

“Nikola, please be quiet,” Helen said through gritted teeth. “I’m trying to concentrate.” She wiggled her hands a little more, trying to dislodge the ropes tightly binding their wrists together.

“Really? Because that’s not what it feels like. Not that I’m complaining!”

Heat went up in Helen’s cheeks. “I’m not – bloody hell.” She was  _ trying  _ to control her hands’ movement, she really was.

“Well, carry on.” Nikola leaned against her, the back of his head resting on hers. “I’ll just sit here and contemplate my former glory.” He was back to the “depressed ex-vampire” tone.

“Even if you were still a vampire, you couldn’t use your claws without slicing my hand off into the bargain,” she pointed out, still struggling with the ropes.

“Helen, are you saying I lack finesse?”

She snorted.

“I don’t think I like the sound of that,” he said, sitting up a little straighter with an offended air.

“Please.” The way he’d been playing with his new magnetic power over the last few weeks had been bordering on ridiculous, making everything even vaguely metallic fly around him whenever he entered a room –

She stiffened with a sharp inhalation. It was so new and they were both so bogged down in what he  _ could  _ have done before...

“Helen, whatever you’re thinking I’d  _ love  _ to accommodate it, but we do still happen to be tied up, and not in the fun way.”

“Not  _ that.  _ Nikola, you’re magnetic.”

There was a long pause.

“Can we just agree to never mention this to anyone else?” Nikola asked at last in a surprisingly small voice. “We do have genius reputations to maintain.”

“Agreed,” she said.

She felt Nikola twist a little behind her, and there was an odd tugging sensation near the knife she kept tucked away in her boot. Another moment later and it was out, floating slowly through the air until it reached their hands.

“You’ll have to let go of me,” Nikola said, voice dripping with smugness.

She rolled her eyes and tried to shift as far away as possible.

As he tilted his head and the knife began sawing away at their ropes, Helen felt the oddest pressure on her back, just far enough away that it wasn’t uncomfortable, it just...tickled. She couldn’t restrain a slight chuckle.

“Side effect,” Nikola said. “I’ll give you all the back scratches you could possibly desire once we’re out of here.”

The chuckle erupted into a full laugh. “Is that supposed to be alluring?”

“You tell me.”

“Very well. Your seduction technique is just as bad as it was eighty years ago.”

“In Prague? Because I  _ was  _ under the influence of a mind-altering abnormal – ”

“All over the world, Nikola.”

Finally, the ropes snapped and Helen slid her hands free, wincing and rubbing her wrists. She and Nikola struggled to their feet, now able to take stock of the small, dark room they were locked inside. Helen was mentally counting down the seconds until Nikola remarked on the intimacy of the setting when soft footsteps sounded outside the door.

“Quick!” Nikola hissed. “We should start kissing so they don’t notice us.”

Helen turned to level a look at him. “Nikola, they know we’re in here already.”

“Alright, that’s a good point,” he conceded. “We could still kiss though, you know, just for the hell of it.”

Swallowing a laugh, Helen shook her head and tugged at his arm. “Perhaps we should concentrate on getting out of here first.”

“First?” He waggled his eyebrows. “And then what?”

She smiled. “We’ll see.”


End file.
